Friday, May 28, 2010

Attributed to Andy Rooney, this commentary is dedicated to all who have reached that very, very young age of 40-also to those of us who remember it well.

“As I grow in age, I value women over 40 most of all. Here are just a few reasons why:

1. A woman over 40 will never wake you in the middle of the night and ask, ‘What are you thinking?’ She doesn’t care what you think.

2. If a woman over 40 doesn’t want to watch the game, she doesn’t sit around whining about it. She does something she wants to do, and it’s usually more interesting.

3. Women over 40 are dignified. They seldom have a screaming match with you at the opera or in the middle of an expensive restaurant. Of course, if you deserve it, they won’t hesitate to shoot you if they think they can get away with it.

4. Older women are generous with praise, often undeserved. They know what it’s like to be unappreciated.

5. Women get psychic as they age. You never have to confess your sins to a woman over 40.

6. Once you get past a wrinkle or two, a woman over 40 is far sexier than her younger counterpart. Older women are forthright and honest. They’ll tell you right off if you are a jerk if you are acting like one. You don’t ever have to wonder where you stand with her.

7. Yes, we praise women over 40 for a multitude of reasons.

8. Unfortunately, it’s not reciprocal. For every stunning, smart, well-coiffed, hot woman over 40, there is a bald, paunchy relic in yellow pants making a fool of himself with some 22-year old waitress.
Ladies, I apologize.

9. For all those men who say, ‘Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?’, here’s an update for you. Nowadays 80% of women are against marriage. Why? Because women realize it’s not worth buying an entire pig just to get a little sausage."

Just before he passed away in 2004, the author, Stieg Larsson, submitted manuscripts to Norstedts Publishing in Sweden. The first of the three-novel series and published in 2005, is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

What makes this a good read? In a word, complexity. One main character, Mikael Blomkvist, the 42- year- old writer and publisher of a Swedish financial magazine, Millennium, has just been fined and sentenced to 3 months in prison for libeling a powerful businessman. Shortly after, Henrik Vanger, a famous industrialist, contacts him to investigate the decades-old disappearance of 16-year-old Harriet Vanger . Before making the offer to employ Blomkvist, Vanger has had the disgraced publisher vetted by Milton Security. The investigator who completes the report is Lisbeth Salander.

Lisbeth Salander is a mysterious twenty-something private investigator who is brilliant, but unusual to say the least. Years before, she had been designated as mentally incompetent by the state, necessitating the assignment of a government-appointed guardian. She has learned to control her destructive impulses through a system she calls "Consequence Analyses" taught to her as a coping mechanism by her first guardian. When he has a debilitating stroke, she is assigned a new, and totally different guardian. It is this guardian with whom she learns the true value of "Consequence Analyses".

The Vanger family itself is cloaked in mystery. As Blomkvist tries to unravel the mystery of Harriet's disappearance, he meets Lisbeth Salander who is conducting her own investigation into his libel trial. Both struggle to make sense of their own lives and, at the same time, they work together to find answers to the Vanger mystery. They discover much more than they had anticipated, information on all fronts, putting them in extreme danger while juggling personal, ethical and moral dilemmas.

What reaction did this reader have on closing the book for the final time? The desire to read the second in the series, The Girl Who Played with Fire, available now in paperback. And finally to read the third novel of the series, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, published by Alfred A. Knopf in hardback this year.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

The Kanzius Cancer Research project ended the competition as first-place winner in the $250,000 Pepsi competition.

News reports credit social networking sites for fueling the Kanzius votes. So we have had a small part in obtaining funding for this worthwhile project. Some of us voted every day. Thanks to those supporters and also to those who forwarded our request for votes to their other distribution lists.

The lead researcher, Steven Curley, M.D., Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, worked with John Kanzius up until the time of John's death from leukemia last hear. He has outlined plans for using the award. Of the total,

$120,000 will be set aside to "hire a molecular biologist specializing in cancer-cell targeting";

$60,000 will provide funds to hire a "physicist for nanoparticle research";

$70,000 will be used for a "global communications plan" ( Erie Times - News, May 1, 2010,9B).

We have all helped this initiative. Thanks to all of you who voted...and voted...and voted again!

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Hmmm...a description of Over 60 Woman...the first words coming to mind are 'information hound' and 'kook magnet'-both descriptions given to me during my professional career by fellow administrators, faculty and students-and both very well deserved!
But important words like grateful granddaughter, daughter, and niece or doting wife, mother, grandmother, aunt, and sister as well as loyal friend and protector of children fit better.
Retired teacher, UG and GR professor,and graduate dean sum up my professional career with published author popping up along the way.
Obviously, everything (except most professional sports!) interests me. A voracious reader, I'm especially curious about what interests other over-60 women and why.
Sorry! I forgot the downsides: compulsive, intense, too focused, and sometimes my Irish moody side surfaces. None of these descriptors could possibly be true, of course, but my family continues to remind me that they are.